Nepal Maoists to foil plot to undermine sovereignty

Kathmandu: A senior Maoist leader today
underlined the determination of Nepal`s former rebels to
foil any plot to undermine national sovereignty.

Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Maoist vice president, said the
party plenum decided to fight plots that threaten national
integrity, sovereignty and independence, without naming any
country.

Amid conflicting reports that Prachanda had described
India as the principal enemy of the party, Shrestha said the
extended conclave of the Maoist had decided to fight back
Indian interference if it posed threat to the completion of
the peace process and framing of the constitution.

However, he dismissed reports claiming that Maoists
described India as the principle enemy during their week-long
plenum that ended in western Nepal`s Gorkha district last
week.

We have not termed India as our principle enemy,
Shrestha said at an interaction programme in the capital on Tuesday.

Party sources had said that in his political paper
presented at the conclave, Prachanda has described India as
the principal enemy of the party. But as his deputy Baburam
Bhattarai did not favour the idea, the plenum could not come
to a consensus on the issue, sources said.

Shrestha, however, dissmiessed such reports, saying
none of the three proposals presented during the plenum termed
India as the principle enemy.

The Maoists have stepped up anti-India campaign after
they were force to quit the government in 2008 over the row
linked to the sacking of then army chief.

In a 14 point-document issued by the party at the end
of the plenum, the Maoists have also condemned the suppression
of India’s Naxalites by the Indian security forces and killing
of one of its leader Azad in an encounter with the police.

SD Muni, the former professor of Jawaharlal Nehru
University in New Delhi who met Prachanda yesterday, quoted
the Maoist chief as saying that the media had portrayed him as
anti-India.

I do no consider India as our "principal enemy, but
we have "principal contradictions" with it, the Indian scholar
quoted Prachanda as saying.

Prachanda said that media has portrayed him as
anti-India though he was not anti-India. "Our party will never
consider India as the principal enemy, he told Muni.